Seems to me the Repubs in Congress have been obstructing anything and everything that Obama has put on the table since his being elected, that it's only natural for them to do the exact same thing with this judicial vacancy.
It's pretty much what they've been singularly obsessed with, and of course, it's all that their constituents have become accustomed to, expect from and then demand from them, all for the lack of any other purpose that these congressional clowns have been known for.
Just imagine if, at the present, the sitting president was a Repub being faced with the same "opportunity" and circumstances that Obama has been presented with. Would the Repubs in Congress cough up the same lame excuses as to why Obama shouldn't nominate someone just as they are now? Or would they be the consummate hypocrites by attempting to slobber as much grease on the skids to get another corporate owned justice on the bench before their own lame duck president leaves office? (Yes, that is a rather rhetorical question, isn't it?)